Violins and violas are musical instruments that have a body with a neck extending out form the body that supports strings. In order to play these instruments, a musician must be able to hold the neck of the instrument with one hand and also be able to properly depress the strings on the neck with the fingers of that hand. The strings must be depressed in the proper location along the neck and although the player's hand can be placed at numerous positions along the neck of the instrument, the most common position used by learners is called the first position, which allows one set of notes to be played from the first position while the player's hand remains in the same position along the neck of the instrument. Other sets of notes can be played when the player's hand is placed closer to the body along the neck, such as the second position and third position.
Many beginning players start out in the first position and one of the difficulties encountered by beginners is support the body of the instrument with the wrist of the hand that is holding the neck. However, proper positioning requires the player's string hand, lower arm and wrist to have straight alignment. The wrist should not be bent in order to support the body of the instrument.
Several solutions have been proposed to assist the beginning player attain proper position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,897,857 of Lockwood teaches a device worn on the wrist of the player to help maintain correct alignment. Other solutions have involved attaching an arm to the neck of the instrument that either directly engages or interferes with the wrist of the player in order to encourage proper alignment, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 542,278 to Peterman, U.S. Pat. No. 1,753,006 to Haaf, U.S. Pat. No. 2,761,346 to Kuchler et al, and U.S. Publication 20080271585.
These prior art devices all introduce an element onto the instrument that attempts to discourage the tendency of the beginning player to want to support the body of the instrument with the player's wrist. What is needed therefore is a device that allows the beginning player to feel like the body of the instrument is being supported while still maintaining proper hand and wrist alignment.